Greece heading towards ‘financial holocaust’ – Keiser

Anti-riot policemen walk in front of the Athens' University during a 48-hour general strike on February 10, 2012. (AFP Photo / Louisa Gouliamaki) / AFP

The Greece’s incredible debt has in fact been accumulated in the banks around the world and forced on to the balance sheet of Greece, says financial analyst Max Keiser, referring to the situation as “financial holocaust”.

­“The debt in Greece does not originate in Greece, it originated in these other countries that have used Greece as a toxic debt dump,” Keiser said. “And now the government of Greece wants the people of Greece to pay for this toxic debt. The Greeks, of course, will be unable to pay the debt and now we are going to see financial holocaust.”

The Greek parliament is due to vote on a new set of cuts and agreement with private debt holders in the coming days.

Max Keiser believes that with the new round of austerity cuts, Greece is “heading to the final solution” and the “IMF will own the railroad tracks and the railroad cars to take Greeks to the final solution.”

Greece's private debt holders are expected to accept some 70 per cent reduction in the value of their investments if the agreement is reached. But these private investors who are going to take a “haircut” on their debt already have that “fully insured in the creditor default swap market and they are going to make money no matter what,” Keiser says.

“They don’t take any risk,” he explained. “That is why Greece is in this problem to begin with.”

Economist Yanis Varoufakis agrees with the sentiment, saying the bailout plan is nothing more than a scheme to delay the steady disintegration of the eurozone. “Greece is being sacrificed on the altar of European procrastination”, Varoufakis told RT.

The Athens-based economist also said that “all they are doing is using cellotape or a plaster on a festering wound – which is Greece today, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and so on. This is what Europe is doing – treating a serious medical condition with a bit of cortisone and some aspirin.”

Meanwhile, on Friday Greece’s two biggest unions launched a 48-hour general strike, which was complemented by mass rallies in Athens. The protests turned violent as groups of youths started throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and the police had to use tear gas to disperse the crowd.